Futurama- I Second That Emotion
The first media I watched this week was Futurama whose message was straightforward. This episode seems to be arguing that empathy isn’t an inherent trait and that it can be developed in one who does not have it. In the example of Bender who is a robot, he is able to feel empathy through the implantation of an empathy chip by the Professor. 
The first thing that I noticed is that he felt not only her sadness, but also her happiness and anger, which I thought was odd, but only because empathy is usually associated with kindness. Continuing, this is reminiscent of the topic of mirror neurons because Bender is able to save Leela’s pet since he seemingly feels her pain. But, it also showcases the weakness of the mirror neuron claim because, after the chip is removed, Bender doesn’t feel empathy anymore despite witnessing and displaying Leela’s love for Nibbler. This might be because he didn’t employ emotional empathy. He acted out of selfishness (how he would feel in her place) instead of thinking about how Leela herself felt. This leans more towards supporting embodied theory since he does not need to theorize Leela’s emotions. His body recognizes her body language and responds to it.
Possessor
When I glanced at the cover for Possessor, I thought it would be like a regular horror movie. You know, maybe there’s a villain, a sidekick, and some violence, However, the opening scene was different than what I expected. I don’t like needles or blood on television, so it was a little uncomfortable to watch. Also, it was a little difficult to understand the plot, so I did have to replay some scenes. Something that I focused on was the sex scenes. The act of sex is usually heightened by the feelings each person has for one another. Vos eventually empathizes with the host to where sex feels like more than an act in every relationship except her own. It paints empathy in a negative light, because, in order to empathize with someone, Vos has to lose part of herself in the process. It makes me wonder if empathy is simply understanding how someone feels or trading a portion of your consciousness for theirs. Is our consciousness just a collection of our experiences with others? In addition, the primary use of empathy in the movie is to allow her to kill people, which also isn’t exactly positive.
I also wanted to zone in on her embodied cognition and how difficult it is to separate the actions performed by the host’s body from her own consciousness. Due to the fact that she couldn’t commit suicide, it seems that the host’s body and her mind are now one. Or, if not, there’s a struggle between the mind and body for control. Vos’s experience isn’t too different from what most people experience as she uses grounding techniques such as repeating the phrase, “I’m absolutely starving”. People normally use this when they’ve lost their sense of self.
3 thoughts on “My Heartfelt Empathy Towards You”
Hi Tonicia,
Your point about empathy being learned is really interesting—because it seems like it is. In fact, cognitive theorists have argued that one of the reasons that we enjoy literature (and film and television) is that it gives us an opportunity to practice what is referred to social cognition, including empathy.
Also, it is worth noting that when we colloquially use the term empathy, we associate it with being kind. But when we are talking about it in terms of cognitive science, it just refers to experiencing the feelings of other, no matter what their emotional valence is.
Jessica Hautsch
Hi Toni,
I totally get what you were saying about Possessor, I also am not a fan of blood or needles! Lol. I think the part where you reference the sex scenes and the trading consciousness aspect. I really like that take, it is a point the boss figure makes, that people usually don’t do this job for very long, that it takes a toll on you. That seems similar to what you were trying to communicate. One thing that stops me from believing the trading consciousness idea is that she can still kill her new hosts with little trouble. If she had taken on that much of his burden I think this would have been impacted.
Olivia Nobs
Hey Toni!
The sex scenes in Possessor also stuck out to me; I feel like they give the audience a good idea of how Vos’ emotional state is. In the scene towards the beginning when she’s having sex with Michael – who is supposed to be her partner – she seems detached and starts biting him seemingly as an impulse. To contrast this, she seems significantly more comfortable in Collin’s body having sex with Ana. I totally didn’t expect this; I expected her to be uncomfortable having sex in a man’s body. It seems as though she became so detached from her own body that she was able to let go of herself completely during this, and relieve the stress she was experiencing during the act itself. I thought this portrayal was really interesting and totally subverted my expectations.
mchupick